KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — Malaysia spoke again today of “hope” in the MH370 crisis, even as tempers flared among the bereaved families of Chinese passengers in Beijing who were just hours ago told that their loved ones had perished in the Indian Ocean.

Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, responding to the families’ fury, pledged on behalf of his government that everything possible will be done to locate the missing aircraft, regardless how Herculean a task it may be.

“I am an optimistic person. And when there is hope... even if it is against hope, we will do whatever it takes,” he said.

Earlier today, a group of angry Chinese relatives of those on board MH370 staged a protest in front of the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, labelling the Malaysian authorities “murderers” for allegedly delaying search and rescue efforts, which they insisted had led to the deaths of their loved ones.

They demanded proof that the aircraft, missing for 18 days now, had indeed gone down in the Indian Ocean as said yesterday by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, demanding to know why the government had arrived at such a conclusion without finding any wreckage from the plane.

When addressing Parliament earlier this afternoon, Hishammuddin admitted that there is no closure yet for the family members of those aboard the ill-fated jetliner.

The government, he said, is still aware that there has still been no sighting of the aircraft yet since its disappearance 18 days ago.

“Indeed there is no closure now. We have only stated that the incident was directed towards the southern corridor,” Hishammuddin said.

“The focus today is to make sure the debris which were detected by the different satellites are objects from MH370. Even when that has been ascertained, we need to find the black box.”

Hishammuddin said at today’s press conference that Malaysia continues its commitment to engage with the families of the Chinese passengers on the missing plane, confirming that a high-level delegation will leave for Beijing later tonight.

He added that the delegation — which held a half-day dialogue with the Chinese families yesterday — will share the detailed explanation on the satellite data analysis by the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and satellite operator Inmarsat on how they came to the decision to narrow down the search to the southern part of the southern corridor.

Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya noted that the high-level team would play an important role in filling in the families on the details of the latest decision to shift the entire search operation to the Indian Ocean in the southern corridor, as announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak last night.

“Since yesterday’s announcement did not have much details, there were a lot of speculations that we were holding back on information... but with the high-level delegation going there, we hope it will satisfy them (families) on why the current actions are being taken,” Jauhari said.